View Camera Magazine & David Muench ???

BradS · Jan 27, 2005

What's the connection?

OK...let me back up a little bit...I'm relatively new to VC mag. My first encounter was with the July/August 2004 issue. That issue and each of the three following issues has had a feature with David Muench...but no explanation why this artist's work gets recurring attention. I'm thinking maybe everybody already knows and I'm the only one dumb enough to wonder about it....

Anyway, I like the mag. I savor the ads and photos for weeeks and have even patronized some of the advertisers. Favorite spreads were: Steven Shore (Jul/Aug 2004), David Burnett and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (both Sept/Oct 2004)....but can somebody please give up the (secret?) connection ?

Thanks,

WarEaglemtn · Jan 27, 2005

David Muench is always welcome to View Camera in my estimation. He is the finest LF color nature photographer working today. He is also a fine person & very knowledgeable on his subject matter as well as how to photograph it.

Hope Steve has him as a regular feature with an image or three & some information on the images/techniques used to create them.

david b · Jan 27, 2005

well one thing is that David Muench lives in the same town as the magazine, Corralles New Mexico.

waynecrider · Jan 27, 2005

David and Mark both are great imagers. Interesting to find how invested they are in digital on the back end, but I guess it's to be expected at their level.

Did you read the article on film availability and the reference by Kodak that film sales were leveling off after what had been a continuous decline. They attribute it to the pro's returning to the use of film for particular work.

John McCallum · Jan 27, 2005

waynecrider said:
.... Interesting to find how invested they are in digital on the back end, but I guess it's to be expected at their level...

Oh I dunno - not necessarily.
Jack Dykinga doesn't seem to rate digital backs on LF equipment very highly. (I personally would regard him to be at a similiar level and he is in the same field of photography).
To paraphrase: "I still believe a single sheet of 4x5 film with an ability to capture 1.5 Gb of info is tough to beat - and you don't need an extra 2 people to carry the hundred pounds of equipment."

I find myself agreeing with him for LF work. The practical efficiency, cost effectiveness and simple performance of film over digital backs makes better sense at this time (imho).
Can't see it changing either. The users of LF equipment are a rather specialist and limited market that is bound to keep the costs of digital equipment high.

Jim Chinn · Jan 27, 2005

I have not seen this issue yet, but I bet there is a slot canyon image somewhere. Evry issue has to have the obigatory slot canyon shot.

BradS · Jan 27, 2005

I should perhaps clarify: David Muench's work is very good and I do enjoy it...was just wondering why he is favored. Guess the home town connection is the thing.

Thanks everybody who responded.

johnfranksphoto · Jan 28, 2005

David Muench

I do like David's style and dedication to photography, but I am very disappointed with his gallery prints in his Jackson Hole gallery. Most of them are ink jets including all of his black and whites prints. Some of the prints are on Fuji Crystal Archive and they do seem to look accurate. He gave his son Mark the responsibility to print the inkjets at their California location. Some of the prints do look digital and what is most disturbing, David Muench and his gallery partner David Brookover don't bother to put a real signature on their prints. They are digitally signed. There are some that are obliviously signed by a real person, but the signatures don't match, I guess those are probably signed by Mark.

I guess it would be too inconvenient for them to be signed by the artist.

And they call it Fine Art Photography.

What a joke

esearing · Jan 28, 2005

Perhaps you could inquire at the ViewCamera.com forums. I'm sure SS would appreciate the feedback and traffic to his forums.

mark · Jan 28, 2005

Muench's work is one I have never tired of looking at. His converted BW images look terrible but aside from that the man is amazing. Dykinga is good but I do not see him on the same level. Both seem to have the power to stop the wind just when they want to.

I stopped buying VC magazine because the articles did not interest me. Is Muench writing articles for them or is it just pictures? I would buy it if he was writing.

steve simmons · Jan 28, 2005

David is a Contributing Editor to View Camera. He has done a series of articles on different themes.

He will also be a speaker at our conferece in Mass. May 20-22. The complete program is on our web site

www.viewcamera.com

The black and white images were not converted from color but shot as B&W.

steve simmons

jovo · Jan 28, 2005

Muench's black and white images appear to have been printed with very strong contrast. (I've only ever seen reproductions, but some of those are in his book with Mark). I remember being surprised by that, but allowed that it was certainly a different look from other photographers of that era who were photographing similar scenes. In the book I have, several of the b and w scenes are also presented in color....work I assume he did later...and they work far better that way, at least for me.

It is a treat to see his work in VC and I welcome it however often it appears.

BradS · Jan 28, 2005

steve simmons said:
David is a Contributing Editor to View Camera. He has done a series of articles on different themes.
steve simmons

Ah, this explains it!

Thanks Steve.

roteague · Jan 28, 2005

John McCallum said:
Oh I dunno - not necessarily.
Jack Dykinga doesn't seem to rate digital backs on LF equipment very highly. (I personally would regard him to be at a similiar level and he is in the same field of photography).
To paraphrase: "I still believe a single sheet of 4x5 film with an ability to capture 1.5 Gb of info is tough to beat - and you don't need an extra 2 people to carry the hundred pounds of equipment."

I find myself agreeing with him for LF work. The practical efficiency, cost effectiveness and simple performance of film over digital backs makes better sense at this time (imho).

I agree perfectly. While I have been a fan of David Muench's work for years, I find myself more in tune with Jack Dykinga - and Joe Cornish, for that matter. Jack's latest book "Arizona" is outstanding!!. FWIW, here is a link to an article that Jack Dykinga wrote for Arizona Highways magazine: Dont Confuse Resolution With Quality by Jack Dykinga

I'm glad to see David's work. I hope VC publishes more landscape work.

View Camera Magazine & David Muench ???

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